


Skin Deep

by Polaristellar



Category: Swan Lake & Related Fandoms, Swan Princess (1994)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Unhappy Ending, odette dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 11:15:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21968416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polaristellar/pseuds/Polaristellar
Summary: In which Odette dies, because some curses cannot be broken.
Relationships: Derek/Odette (Swan Princess)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 42





	Skin Deep

Odile may have stolen her face, her hair, even her voice but surely he would have known the words from her mouth were not hers, not Odette’s – that Odette would never wear the colours of mourning to festivity, such that it were an ill omen, that Odette would never wink salaciously at the guards, nor command the attention of the ballroom as Odile had done so, as if she were above it all.

Of course, a man who had proclaimed his love for her was only skin deep could never have told them apart. So while at first her wings had beat frantically on the windowpanes and her beak had cracked against the glass like thunder, her protestations dimmed as she took in his face, effused with the easy sort of love that blankets and comforts and ignores, enraptured by the allure of the black swan and blind to the white swan locked outside.

She loved him, though. She was foolish like that, and now he had broken her heart without even knowing that he had done so. Still, knowing what was to come, she watched as he professed his love to Odile, felt it in her hollow bones as the curse locked into her spine, and allowed the last of her human tears to drain from her swanned form. She did not stay long enough for Rothbart to reveal what he had done. She did not want to see the anguish on Derek’s face.

There’s a thing dying animals do, where they find a place of comfort and solitude to spend their last moments. As a human, it would have been in Derek’s arms had she the choice, but as a swan there was only one place she could go. And so she sailed the sky, wings barely aloft on high wind, until she came in view of the lake, and careened downwards into the shallows where exhausted she collapsed.

Something was happening. It was the same feeling as when she would transform, but that had never felt painful. This was a hundred thousand pinpricks under her skin, a fire alight in her skull. She could not scream for lack of breath, and her face grew wet, with tears, she thought but as her shaky hand brushed them away she found it was slick with blood.

So this was her death. Alone and cold and heartbroken, with a thousand words unsaid.

Distantly came the clop of hooves, and Odette despaired. He would only subject himself to more grief to see her like this, she knew, and for what? She would die, and he had come to see her die, for he could not lift this curse now.

_Footsteps in the underbrush, her name on his lips, ringing into the silence._

_Drawn breaths, dimmed vision. When did the moon shine so bright? When did the skies turn starless?_

_“Odette! ODETTE!!” The unsheathing of a sword. The slashing of thorns._

_Coldness in her fingers. A hoarseness in her throat. I’m here, Derek. I’m here._

_Arms scooping her up, cradling her like a child. Warm, so distant, but the smell of him, like pine and winter spice._

_Melting into him, the way they were always supposed to meld. Tainted by curses and tragedy._

She can feel his tears on her face, and the pressure of his hand around hers. She squeezes back, she thinks, but her fingers do not move. He’s crooning to her in between gasping sobs but she cannot make out the words; she can only feel the heave of his chest as he tries to stifle them. Go, she tries to tell him, leave me be, but her lips form an empty circle devoid of any sound. He understands anyways, and his arms tighten around her. He will not leave her, and perhaps there is a selfish comfort to be found in that.

So instead she thanks whatever power there may be that she will die human and loved, in Derek’s arms. That if she must go, perhaps there is no better way.

Not a long while later, Odette dies.


End file.
